A landlord is demanding more than £6,500 from three students left too traumatised to return to their rented house after finding their friend dead inside.

The grieving pals needed counselling for post traumatic stress after discovering 21-year-old Robert Chavda lifeless in bed at the home in Sussex Road, Canterbury.

They argue the ordeal emotionally destroyed them and left them unable to move back into the five-bedroom property.

But student landlord Werner Toogood is demanding they cough up the remaining five months of their contract, taking a claim for £6,529 to Medway Civil Court on Friday.

The hearing was told the house had been rented for the 2013/14 academic year through the Student Lettings Agency – whose motto is ‘looking after you’.

The firm is run by Mr Toogood and has about 200 properties with 500 student tenants.

“It was not our circumstances which changed, but the tenants’. Had the building fallen down, it would have been a different argument" - Werner Toogood

Robert, a former pupil of the Rochester Math School in Medway, lived in the house on the Spring Lane Estate with four other students – best friend Dan McCourt, 22, Elon Carlton-Carew, 22, Adam Waller, 24, and Jack Dick.

He was found dead on January 11 of last year having suffered a brain haemorrhage after taking MDMA.

His housemates desperately tried to resuscitate him, but their efforts proved in vain.

Unable to bear living in the house, they asked Mr Toogood to find them alternative accommodation, but he was unable to.

They were instead rehomed together by Canterbury Christ Church University and given counselling.

Three of the students offered to pay Mr Toogood three of the remaining five months of their tenancy to terminate the contract, but he refused. Jack Dick paid in full to avoid court action.

Mr Toogood told the court: “The fact is that the building is still there. The circumstances have not changed.

“It was not our circumstances which changed, but the tenants’. Had the building fallen down, it would have been a different argument.

“We did what we could, but unfortunately we did not have any spare accommodation.

“It was the tenants’ responsibility to pay the contract, but after various conversations we received a letter saying they were no longer going to continue with paying the rent.

“The offer was made for three months, but it was rejected because it would have left it fallow for three months.”

Mr Toogood had written to Robert’s parents offering them a two-year repayment plan on their son’s outstanding rent, but later waived the debt.

"He started renovating the house. His actions imply a surrender of the property had taken place and that he had taken ownership of it. When we got the solicitor’s letter, it was a total shock" - Nicola McCourt

He also offered the students and their families the chance to sublet the rooms in the house in order to fulfil the contract, but they declined.

In September of 2014, he sent them a solicitor’s letter which sparked the civil action against them.

Mr McCourt’s mother, Nicola, acted as a spokesman in court for the students and their families, who were guarantors on the tenancy agreement.

The 48-year-old, who lives with husband Roly, 52, in Wigmore, Medway, argued that the contract had effectively been frustrated by Robert’s death.

She also accused Mr Toogood of breaching the contract because he had started renovating the house after they moved out, even though enough money had been paid to him for occupancy until the end of February.

“The contract was frustrated by exceptional unforeseen circumstances,” Mrs McCourt said.

“They were traumatised by what had happened and were in no fit state to deal with this.

“In February, he started renovating the house. His actions imply a surrender of the property had taken place and that he had taken ownership of it.

“When we got the solicitor’s letter, it was a total shock.”

Adam Waller’s mother Rosemary added: “He was not in a fit psychiatric state to move back into the property. All of the boys had counselling and yet they were all more or less told to get on with it.”

District Judge Simon Gill adjourned the case and will present his judgement in writing later in the month. Both parties will be invited back to appear before him.

After the case, Mrs McCourt told the Kentish Gazette: “Ever since that day, the boys have relived that trauma over and over again.

“Everything the Student Lettings Agency did added to their anguish. They weren’t just grieving, they were angry.

“Grief creates many different reactions, but the boys conducted themselves well throughout.

“Given the circumstances, we thought we had made a very reasonable offer.

“Mr Toogood would have had 10 of the 12 months of the lease and the house back. If he had accepted that, none of us would have had to come to court.

“If the roof of the house had caved in they wouldn’t have been able to live there – but their whole worlds caved in when Rob died.”

An inquest into Robert Chavda’s death took place in June of last year and recorded a verdict of misadventure.

It heard he and a group of friend’s had been out on January 9 to the Penny Theatre and then to the Chill nightclub where it is thought he took the MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy, which cost him his life.

A friend stayed with him and then left the next afternoon, leaving him sleeping on the bed.

By January 11, the others in the house realised they had not seen him for a while. Adam Waller went into the room and found his lifeless body on the bed.

A pathologist found 1.4mg of MDMA per litre of blood, putting it in the fatal range. It was responsible for the brain haemorrhage which caused his death.